Sup guy's...

Ive heard of inflatable tire mods, but i cant remember where i read about it. Has anyone done this? I'm interested in the results...seems like it would minimize rolling resistance, but make the truck bounce more? Any input here? Thanks....

It will make the truck bounce more for sure. I have a set of maximizer beedlocks that completely sealed teh tires from leaking any air. They felt like they were full of air. It was not good for jumping at all. It bounced all over the place. I drilled small holes in the inner part of the wheels and no more bouncing.

I remember seeing an FG Monster truck with pneumatic tires, when adjusted properly it handled really nicely. Can't say how well it would work on lighter vehicles though.

Thanks for the replies guy's. It was just a thaught..

i know you might not be monitoring this thread anymore, but if you are, i plan on trying to engineer a set of inflatable tires using my HPI (non-beadlock) rims, HPI super mudder tires, superglue, and sports-ball needle inflation plugs. i got the idea while trying to figure out how to make my (converted 14v emaxx chassis to 16v chassis) lighter and realized the tires were probibly half the weight of the truck.

i have knolledge of technics that the real monster truck teams (I.E. Gravedigger etc.) use to make their tires lighter too like carving off exxess rubber.

i will post pictures and updates as they come along.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RC-Tire-Inflatio...QQcmdZViewItem

I have made progress. here is what i used for the first tire: super glue, 2 spare screws, a rubber "dodge ball", and a dremel.

i used one of the screws to seal up one of the two stock holes in the rim. then i carefully cut out the valve from the dodge ball. after inspecting the valve, i reemed the other hole in the rim so that i could snugly insert the valve so that it would be inside the tire once the tire was sealed up. then i applied super glue around the valve to seal it up to the rim. after the glue was dry and set. i closed up and sealed the tire with super glue. again after the glue was dry adn set, i took a sports ball inflater pump with the needle and moistened it and pressurized the tire. i found all the leaks by putting a little water where the rim met the tire and rolled the tire around to watch for bubbles. when you find a bubble, deflate the tire so it has "negitive pressure" and applied some super glue and watched the tire soak up the glue where the leak was. after all leaks are sealed, inflate tire to desired pressure and insert the other screw into the valve to plug it.

pictures to follow as i finish the other 3 tires.

The air valve from a football is what i was thinking too. I cant see super glue holding it in though. What truck are your tires for?

Ahh...T-maxx, i missed that the first time through....

first off, i used rubber balls instead of a football because of price difference. $3.50 vs $10-$14. what you see here is what is left over after cutting out the valve housing.



that is the valve housing. that is what you want to cut out without destroying the valve.



carefully cut open the valve housing to expose the valve and remove it.



this is the valve. you will notice the the short flat end and long, rounded end. you will be inserting the flat end into the hole you carve or reem out of the rim.



ensure you remove the the coating and ruff up the surface where the plug and the valve will be glued to. when making one of the two stock vent holes in the rim bigger for the valve, use a dremel and increase hole sizeto about 3/4 the diameter of the valve as allow a snug fit.



this is what the valve will look like once it's fully seated and glued into place. apply the glue after you have the valve seated and apply light pressure until the super glue is set, ensure glue is applied under the lip of the valve where it meets the rim.



once you have the valve and the plug (screw or item of your choice) are glued in, slide the tire over the valve. then seat and glue the bead of the tire to the rim ensuring you have a uniform bead of glue. then, moisten a needle inflater tip (used to inflate sports balls) without the hand pump atached so you can gently squeeze the air out of the tire. while the tire is "deflated", pull the needle tip out and leave tire to set. if the tire re-inflates, there is a leak. to find the leak, inflate the tire and put a little water on the tire bead area and roll the tire, moving the water accross the bead, the leak will show up with bubbles.



after all leaks are sealed and tire is inflated, it shouldlooke like the tire on the left, vs. the still foam framed tire on the right.

Thats cool man..have you had time to jump the truck around yet?

i just got done doing that. it was only a small jump and it was hard to "thread the needle" on a jump only 2 ft wide at 20-30mph, but the truck handled very nicely. by the way, the tires have been inflated for nearly 12 hours now and have not deflated on their own yet. this mod has lots of promise. here is what i run:



i painted the body myself. the truck started in 2005 as a stock 14.4v emaxx. there are only a handful of origional parts left and i had to either modify or custom configure a some of the parts in this 16.8v style emaxx. i still run the truck on a 14.4v system though. i use a novak HV-MAXX brushless motor. i set up the front bumper in a different orientation as to protect the truck better than it would in it's stock location. what i did was turn the mount brakets upside down and swaped sides so the bumper is relocated to become a brush guard in front of the skid plate.

i have a highly modified 14.4v version of the steering linkage that does not have any servo saver because i can not find a full set of the 16.8v version steering linkage. i use duel HiTEC HG-5955TG titanium gear servos for the steering. it is very responsive compared to what traxxas has to offer in the stock 16.8v emaxx RTR.



front bumper view



top view



steering linkage view. what you can't see is that i had to carve some material from sub-rails to allow for clearance and smooth motion of the servos.

Thats a sharp lookin truck! Did you have to tweak the suspension any to get it to handle properly? Or ..in the short time you have had to run the new modded tires do you forsee any necassary suspension tweeks?

nope. i haven't tweeked my suspension at all...i just have it set up for maximum ground clearance becuase i don't need a low center of gravity. i normally jump the hell out of it and with the tire mod, i should be breaking less parts....one thing i noticed was that i don't get gyroscopic rotation as bad with the moded tires.